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Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, 11365-4563 Tehran, Iran
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 1 April 2010
Accepted 21 September 2010
Available online 29 September 2010
Keywords:
Separation
Electric eld
Electro-coalescence
Oilwater interface
Secondary droplet
a b s t r a c t
The coalescence of an aqueous droplet at an oilwater interface under an electric eld has been investigated, with a view to quantify conditions that give rise to secondary droplet formation. Two patterns
of drop-interface coalescence may occur: complete coalescence and partial coalescence. The former is
obviously the desirable pattern for industrial coalescers. However in practice, the process of coalescence
could actually produce smaller droplets, which become more difcult to remove, and hence undesirable.
This is caused by either necking, due to extensive elongation of the droplet, or reaction to a fast and energetic coalescence and is referred to as partial coalescence. The volume of the droplets formed in this way
has been analyzed as a function of the initial droplet size, electric eld strength and the distance between
the droplet and the interface. The expansion speed of the neck connecting the droplet and interface at
the beginning of the pumping process has also been quantied. These results are useful in optimizing the
electro-coalescence process.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In the chemical, processing and manufacturing industries,
immiscible liquids are often mixed such that one phase is fully dispersed in another, e.g. in extraction and leaching. The aim is to get a
large interfacial area for the enhancement of mass transfer between
the two immiscible liquids [14]. In crude oil extraction from oil
wells [5], an aqueous saline phase is often well-dispersed in the
crude oil. However these emulsions or dispersions have to be separated into their constituent phases before the next operating steps
or as required by process requirements, environmental regulations
and customer specications as in the case of crude oil industry [6].
There are several techniques for enhancing the separation of waterin-oil emulsions, such as the addition of chemical demulsier [7],
pH adjustment and ltration [8], gravity or centrifugal settling [9],
heat treatment and electrostatic demulsication [10,11]. In terms
of energy efciency, electrostatic demulsication is considered to
be the best among the above methods [10]. The state of the art
has been reviewed by Eow and Ghadiri [6]. Here the rate of coalescence can signicantly be enhanced by the application of an electric
eld. The coalescence occurs in three stages [9,12,13]. In the rst
stage, the drops approach each other or the interface and are separated by a lm of the continuous phase. The second stage involves
the thinning of this lm. When the lm reaches a critical thickness
any disturbance or instability causes it to rupture, following which
Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 113 343 2406; fax: +44 113 343 2384.
E-mail address: m.ghadiri@leeds.ac.uk (M. Ghadiri).
0255-2701/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cep.2010.09.017
coalescence occurs [1416]. Film thinning is often the overall controlling step in the absence of an electric eld. In order to increase
the separation rate, the lm-thinning process needs to be faster and
this can be done by the application of an electric eld. High electric
elds have been used to separate water-in-oil dispersions in crude
oil and extraction industries [6]. To apply this method, the continuous phase needs to be much more electrically insulating compared
with the dispersed phase, in order to set up an electric eld [17].
The current understanding of the electrocoalscence phenomenon
has been reviewed by Eow et al. [18].
2. The effect of applied electric eld on drop interface
coalescence
In the absence of an electric eld the coalescence of a drop
at a liquidliquid interface sometimes produces smaller drops as
observed by Charles and Mason [19,20]. During the rupture of
the lm between the main drop and the interface, the excess
internal pressure from the curved interface produces a cylindrical liquid column. The radius of this column decreases rapidly until
its circumference becomes smaller than its height. As a result of
a Rayleigh wave disturbance, a secondary droplet is often formed
[20]. The mean rest-time of a drop at an interface can be significantly reduced by applying an electric eld because the rate of
lm thinning is increased [1922]. It has been reported that in the
presence of an external electric eld, the generation of the secondary droplet does not occur [19,20,22]. Aryafar and Kavehpour
[23] have recently proposed that the partial coalescence in the
absence of an electric eld may be described by Ohnesorge number,
339
Table 1
The properties of the liquid used in the experiment.
Liquids
Conductivity (S m1 ) (5%)
Dielectric constant
De-ionized water
Sunower oil
1.1 10
3.6 106
1.00
46.5
73
33
998
920
80
4.9
340
Fig. 2. Sequence of a complete coalescence for a droplet of 984 2 m diameter under electric eld strength of 56 V/mm.
341
Fig. 3. Partial coalescence of a droplet of 1196 4 m diameter under two electric eld strengths: (a) 124 V/mm and (b) 181 V/mm.
Fig. 4. Deformation and start of coalescence of a 1196 4 m droplet with an interface under the electric eld strength of 181 V/mm, showing the formation of a
narrow channel.
(a)
56 V/mm
90 V/mm
124 V/mm
158 V/mm
181 V/mm
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
(b)
Detached body vol103 (mm3)
342
56 V/mm
90 V/mm
90 V/mm
124 V/mm
158 V/mm
181 V/mm
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
500
600
700
800
181 V/mm
8
6
4
2
0
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
d (m)
(d)
Detached body vol103 (mm3)
56 V/mm
158 V/mm
10
d (m)
(c)
124 V/mm
12
900
1000
1100
1200
d (m)
56 V/mm
90 V/mm
124 V/mm
158 V/mm
181 V/mm
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
d (m)
Fig. 5. (a)(d) The effect of droplet size on detached body volume under various electric eld strengths and separation distances: (a) = 53 7 m, (b) = 101 10 m, (c)
= 150 11 m, and (d) = 200 14 m
5761m
8291m
9842m
11002m
11964m
12
Table 2
The deformation of the droplet diameter of 984 2 m under different electric eld
strength quantitatively.
10
8
90
124
158
181
D = dmajor /dminor
1.058
1.075
1.154
1.158
6
4
2
0
50
70
90
110
130
150
170
190
Fig. 7. Different deformations degree for the same droplet diameter of 984 2 m under different electric eld strength.
5761m
8291m
343
9842m
11002m
11964m
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
25
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
225
(m)
Fig. 10. The effect of height of drop from interface on detached body volume for
various drop sizes under E = 181 V/mm.
6. Conclusions
Fig. 8. Characteristic dimensions to monitoring the speeds.
Equator Reducon
Peak Falling
245
220
195
170
145
120
95
70
45
20
-5
-30
-55
10
11
12
t (ms)
Fig. 9. Speed of the channel expansion, equator reduction and peak falling for a drop
with diameter 984 2 m under E = 181 V/mm.
344
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